Sometimes the best and most important ideas are born out of necessity.

Frustrated by a lack of full-scale summer track meets in the area, Frank Myers decided to take action. He and his brother Don hosted their inaugural meet Monday, July 8, 1969, at Colonie High School. It was free to participate, and 18 males competed that day.

Nearly 50 years later, hundreds of runners ranging in age from under 6 to older than the meet itself take to the same Colonie High track for what has become a summer Tuesday night tradition. The biggest race is the mile, which had 240 timed participants at the June 25 meet. And while some things have changed over the more than 400 meets that have taken place since those first races, the Myers brothers still put hours of their time into running these meets without a single penny of compensation for it.

"We don't run a program that charges an exorbitant amount of money, that's some kind of travel program that the coach gets paid a lot of money," Frank Myers said. "We really care for the kids. Not everything going on nowadays is driven by that.

"It's like Little League used to be."

The meets reached their peak competitiveness in the early 1980s, thanks to the "running boom" and the Empire State Games. Millions of people across the country took to competitive running around this time period, with many using the meets as a way of training for the Games. State champions, national champions, and even Olympians have competed since the meets began.

"We don't get the quality we used to get, but that's not what we are doing it for," Frank Myers said.

Still, some elite runners compete on a weekly basis. For instance, Albany alumna and 2014 Olympian Grace Claxton ran this past week. However, nowadays the meets are much more kid-oriented. High school runners, whose coaches in many cases volunteer to help the meets go smoothly, come to train with cross country season right around the corner. It's a family affair, as parents hoping to pass on their passion to their children are another group of common competitors.

"We see a lot of our runners now come back with their kids," meet volunteer Sandy Morley said. "They know, for many, many years, that they can always come Tuesday night and either get a workout for themselves or expose their children to running so they love it as much as their parents do."

Frank Myers says the Colonie meets are currently the only one of its kind in the area. And while he's quick to deflect credit from himself to the other volunteers, those around him recognize that his commitment over the years is the reason why the Colonie meets have endured while others have failed to catch on.

"Nobody is as dedicated as Frank, to be honest with you," Morley said.

Coming up for the meet is "Ribbon Night" on July 24, an annual event that draws massive turnouts from younger children. The children receive a ribbon after every race they run, and they can run any race the adults run. The event is made possible by the meet's sponsor, the Hudson Mohawk Road Runners Club, which has sponsored the meet since 2010. That's one of just three remaining meets for the year, with the final one coming July 31. Then, Frank Myers will turn his focus to coaching the girls' cross country team at Colonie High, from which he said 20 ran at the meet this week.

Even at the age of 72, Frank Myers shows no signs of slowing down. However, he does acknowledge the need to get younger people involved in running the event, especially in the wake of longtime volunteer Bob Oates leaving the area to move closer to family in Maine.

"We have a huge net of people," Myers said, alluding to the hundreds if not thousands of runners who have been coached by current volunteers like Myers and Morley. "I think if we reach out to kids who we've coached, they'll come back to help us."

But just because he's looking for younger help doesn't mean he's calling it quits.